When delving into the world of international arbitration in Latin America, it is worth setting aside the common stereotype of the region as a single monolithic place, rather than a confluence of many countries with "significant differences" between them, Professor Andrés Jana, a litigation and arbitration attorney from Chile, told Miami Law students in a recent address.

Professor Jana, an adjunct professor at Miami Law who was speaking as part of the International Law Lecture Series, said the legal systems of Latin American countries have "evolved in different ways" and have been influenced by each country's political and historical processes, although there are factors that they have in common. Professor Jana also addressed what he called the "hostility of Latin America toward international arbitration," and the so-called Calvo Doctrine, a set of international rules regulating the jurisdiction of governments over aliens and the scope of their protection by their home states. Advanced by the Argentinian legal scholar Carlos Calvo in 1868, it affirmed that rules governing a country's jurisdiction over aliens should apply equally to all nations regardless of their size.

Professor Jana is a partner at the Chilean law firm Bofill Mir & Alvarez Jana. He earned an LL.M. degree from Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude from the Law School of the Universidad de Chile. In 2010, Legal Who's Who recognized him as one of the top five experts in international arbitration in Chile, and he is regarded by Chambers & Partners as one of Chile's best litigation attorneys. Professor Jana is the Chilean delegate before the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and a member of the ICC's Arbitration Committee, and is on the Panel of Arbitrators for ICSID. He has acted as external advisor to the Chilean government, particularly to the Ministries of Energy, Foreign Affairs and Finance. He provided advice to the Chilean government during negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement between Chile and the U.S., as well in negotiations of the financial services and investment chapters of the FTA with the European Union. A professor of civil law at the Universidad de Chile since 1997, he regularly lectures and publishes on international arbitration. At Miami Law, he teaches International Arbitration in Latin America in the International Arbitration LL.M. program.